Data centers may use fault-tolerant storage techniques for proficient and dependable storage of data. In particular, erasure coding techniques may be employed to reduce storage overhead. Erasure coding may be implemented across storage nodes (e.g., disk, servers and rack). Erasure coding can provide efficient recovery of missing data (e.g., data fragments) based on local protection groups that define local dependencies between code data fragments. Local protection groups can be implemented without much complexity but simple rigidly structured local protection groups can limit the recovery operation capabilities of erasure coded data when recovering missing data.